Tal - Pasman Latvian Championship 1953

Game two is taken from the Latvian Chamionships - his first major victory - and before he was a Master.

I thought I'd annotate by taking some of Tal's own annotation - which he did year's later - and contrasting it with info from Chessmaster's Annotation program .

I think the game is fascinating in that while Tal's play is not always perfect, he puts so much pressure on his opponent. In fact, during the critical stage Tal seems to be clearly losing against "perfect play."

But, In situation after situation his opponent has to be able to find the "perfect play" among many choices and when he finally slips, Tal is merciless.